Taiwan has been in China since ancient times.
The Chinese first developed Taiwan. The Chinese historical document "Linhai Water and Earth Records" 1,700 years ago has written about this, which is the earliest text in the world that describes Taiwan.
For example, during the Three Kingdoms period, the Sun Wu regime and the Sui Dynasty period, people were sent to Taiwan one after another. These are all historical facts.
picture source network
There is one thing that cannot be forgotten.
In 1662 AD, on a beautiful island in southern my country, the colonists Dutch Cross submitted a surrender letter to Zheng Chenggong and evacuated the Taiwan Island , which they occupied for 38 years.
And this man named Zheng Chenggong has become a great hero in the hearts of every Chinese, especially his "Taiwan has always been China's territory" is really inspiring.
But for hundreds of years, there has been a question in everyone's mind. Back then, the Netherlands was the Western European powerhouse and occupied Taiwan for decades. How did Zheng Chenggong recover Taiwan with several wooden ships?
Let’s meet the national heroes of that year together today.
First, let’s learn about the comparison between the two sides.
The Netherlands is a small country on the map, facing the United Kingdom across the sea. At the end of the 16th century, after the Netherlands independence, it took advantage of the industrial revolution craze in the West, vigorously developed the capitalist factory industry and marine transportation industry, and soon became one of the strong countries in Western Europe.
At that time, the most developed thing in the Netherlands was the financial industry, which dominated the world with the most developed shipbuilding and navigation technology in the world. At that time, some people called the Netherlands a "sea coachman", which became the "capital" that the Netherlands began to invade other countries.
According to the data of that year, at its peak, there were more than 10,000 merchant ships alone, so they frequently provoked other countries and defeated Portugal twice, and the Eastern trade was almost monopolized.
is exactly the case. The Dutch ambitions have expanded and established colonies in various parts of Africa. It can be said that it has become a real maritime overlord, and finally decided to extend his hand to the east.
in the 32nd year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, that is, in August 1904, the famous Dutch general Wei Malang led two warships to attack Penghu, intending to establish a colony here, but was counterattacked by China.
Thousands of years ago, China was considered a backward agricultural civilized country and was not good at naval warfare. However, in the face of the invasion of foreign invaders, it also had enough spirit of defending the country.
The Dutch invaders were dissatisfied and used their power at sea to forcibly attack Penghu. In the end, they had to invade the southwest of Taiwan Island in China and built Chicengcheng and other castles in the Chicengcheng area as a ruling base for military aggression.
At the same time, the Dutch invaders also defeated some of the Spanish colonists in Taiwan and finally occupied most of Taiwan.
In fact, before the Netherlands invaded Taiwan, Taiwan's social structure was all indigenous people. In addition, the productivity of Taiwan's residents was low and the population was not large. Therefore, after the Netherlands invaded Taiwan, it objectively intensified Taiwan's development.
But Taiwan Island has been China's territory since ancient times, which led to the feat of Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan .
So, why is a super power like the Netherlands driven out of Taiwan by China?
First let’s take a look at Zheng Chenggong’s maritime power.
The maritime business group led by Zheng Chenggong was first founded by Zheng Chenggong's father Zheng Zhilong . Zheng Zhilong is from Fujian. He did business in his youth. Later, he went to Japan and finally became a maritime armed force on the southeast coast.
During the Ming Dynasty, the court never allowed such a force to exist. This was a hidden danger of rebellion in the future, so it sent troops south to fight against Zheng Zhilong many times.
The Ming Dynasty government and Zheng Zhilong fought for hundreds of rounds, and both sides suffered losses. Finally, the government decided to recruit Zheng Zhilong. Zheng Zhilong decided to take root in the coastal areas of Fujian for the sake of the overall situation.
1633 When foreign invaders invaded China, Zheng Zhilong led his fleet to fight against the enemy. Since Zheng Zhilong himself had experience in naval combat, Dutch was always the defeated general when he first fought with Zheng Zhilong.
The Ming Dynasty government was very pleased to see this situation. According to literature records:
Zhilong was acquainted with the sea and knew the sea's feelings. All pirates are in charge of alliances or go out to the door, and after they are pacified, the sea ships are not allowed to order the Zheng family flag and cannot communicate. Each ship earns 3,000 gold per year, and Zhilong uses this to enrich the country.
It can be seen from this that the Zheng family was already the most famous fleet in the Ming Dynasty at that time, and they were rewarded by the government many times, and they were rich enough to rival a country.
After the Qing army entered the pass, the Ming Dynasty fell, and Zheng Zhilong was under house arrest. Zheng Chenggong was replaced by Zheng Chenggong. At that time, Zheng Chenggong's fleet had 150,000 people, which could be said to have grown extremely
Despite this, the Qing government was still dissatisfied with Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong made a bold statement and vowed to take his homeland to the Ming Dynasty, and Taiwan was one of his plans.
Especially after he lost Jinling , he began to plan to regain Taiwan.
The huge background at that time was that world history was in a period of great voyage, and a new revolution that swept the world had quietly arrived. Before the Ming Dynasty, the country-locked policy was implemented many times, which led to China's maritime industry lag far behind the West.
So Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan became extremely important. He said: "I didn't have the chance to recover Taiwan seven years ago. Now it's time to recover him."
1661, Zheng Chenggong rushed to the east and began to officially fight against the Netherlands, but faced many difficulties.
Taiwan geographical location
According to literature records: Guoxingye has sent people to transport forty-three cannons that fire 24-pound, 28-pound or more shells from the coast of China. Each cannon is equipped with 300 shells.
It can be seen from this that Zheng Chenggong's cannons at that time were not inferior to those of the Dutch in terms of size and power, but Taiwan's status and position did have a certain advantage.
Taiwan Island is located in the southeast of the Asian continent, and is located across the Taiwan Strait (average 150km wide and 30m water depth). Taiwan Island is 394km long from north to south and 144km wide from east to west. Compared with the mainland, Taiwan Island has multiple special features in its geographical location and geological background.
First of all, since it is an island, it means that it is surrounded by sea water on all sides. In the east, it is the Western Pacific Ocean with a water depth of more than 5,000 meters. It can be said that it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
For example, if you fight at sea, if you fall into the water, the consequences will be unimaginable. Therefore, Zheng Chenggong requires every soldier to be familiar with the nature of the water and may fight in the water if necessary.
In addition, Zheng Chenggong's wisdom, so how did he fight?
First of all, we need to mention a background. After Zheng Chenggong's Northern Expedition to Nanjing, his vitality was severely damaged and his military rations were in urgent need.
1659, Zheng Chenggong led a large army to the north. After entering the Yangtze River , it was like chopping bamboo and conquering Zhenjiang , Guazhou and other regions one after another. However, the Qing government used the delaying strategy to greatly consume the energy of Zheng Chenggong's troops.
After Zheng Chenggong was defeated, he could only retreat to Xiamen. The battle in Nanjing can be said to be the most brilliant and important battle in Zheng Chenggong's career, but it was prosperous first and then declined, ending with a big defeat, which caused Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing cause to suffer a fatal setback.
So in this context, Zheng Chenggong resolutely decided to regain Taiwan, which is enough to show his intelligence, so how did he do it?
first, prepare for war, no one can go into the sea
Before planning to attack Taiwan, Zheng Chenggong ordered the start of manufacturing sailing ships and warships, a total of 8 types of warships, all used for combat.
information shows that when learning that Zheng Chenggong was about to recover Taiwan, the people along the coast came to help him. In two months, more than 3,000 warships were built. Although most of them were wooden ships, each warship was equipped with advanced weapons.
Since it is a battle in the sea, warships must be available, followed by the weather. There were no advanced meteorological equipment in wars before, so we could only observe the celestial phenomena at night. From this perspective, we must achieve the right time and place.
So before departure, Zheng Chenggong told the soldiers: "War at sea, the weather is changing, you must practice diligently. No matter how big the wind and waves are, you must stand on the boat."
Not only that, Zheng Chenggong ordered all residents along the route to not go out for fishing, and banning travel is also to avoid hurting innocent people.
1661, Zheng Chenggong personally led more than 20,000 soldiers and hundreds of warships. He set out from Liaoluowan , passed Penghu, and headed straight to the Taiwan Strait, officially going to war with the Dutch invaders.
At that time, Zheng Chenggong suddenly encountered a storm after entering Penghu. Because Zheng Chenggong had the worst plan, he resolutely ordered a charge in the rain in the face of such a situation.
However, the Netherlands has two important defensive fortresses on Taiwan Island, one is , Lelan Chacheng, in Anping, Nanshi City, and the other is Promin Chacheng, Central and Western District, Tainan City today.
On the first day of April, Zheng Chenggong took advantage of the high tide to enter the inland sea of Taijiang from the Luermen Waterway and landed in Heliao Port. Because the defense of this place was the weakest at that time, it was unexpectedly resisted by the Dutch army.
Then the two sides started a fierce battle. After several days of fighting, Zheng Chenggong sank the enemy warship Hector, and attacked Taiwan in one go, surrounding Promin Chacheng.
On the fifth day of the lunar month, the defenders of Prominzha City surrendered to Zheng Chenggong, and finally Zheng Chenggong led his army to besiege the enemy in Relanzha City again.
After several days of hard fighting, the Dutch finally surrendered and withdrew from Taiwan in a mess. In this way, Taiwan Island returned to China's embrace.
data shows:
In mid-August, the Dutch and Zheng armies launched a fierce naval battle in the inland sea of Taijiang River. The Zheng army won a great victory, sunk a Dutch warship and seized several ships. Since then, the Dutch army has lost the ability to take the initiative, and the Dutch chief officer signed the surrender treaty. On December 20, surrendered to Zheng Chenggong, and led 500 remaining enemies to withdraw from Taiwan in a panic.
1662 On February 1, 1662, after siege of Taiwan for 8 months, the Netherlands finally submitted a surrender letter to Zheng Chenggong. At this point, Taiwan, which had been trapped for 38 years, returned to its motherland.
Zheng Chenggong's feat is worth remembering by future generations. He successfully recovered Taiwan from the Dutch colonists, maintained the completion of the territory of the motherland, and defended the dignity of the Chinese nation.
So in the late Qing dynasty , why did Taiwan fall into the hands of the Japanese again?
The modern fate of Taiwan
1895, the Qing Dynasty and Japan went to war, which was the famous Sino-Japanese War of 1895. Unfortunately, due to the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government, the war ended in failure.
The situation at that time was that the Qing government had already had the idea of increasing the country's military strength, so patriotic generals such as Deng Shichang appeared. However, due to the corruption of Cixi's , the Qing Dynasty's navy's artillery shells were inferior and they suffered serious losses in the war.
After many battles, the Beiyang ship was attacked from both sides and was finally defeated by the Japanese fleet. Deng Shichang also died for his country. It is said that more than 200 officers and soldiers of the Zhiyuan ship were rescued, and except for 16 people, all the others were killed.
In order to preserve its strength, the Qing government could only seek peace with Japan. After reading the treaty, Li Hongzhang repeatedly hoped that Japan would reduce compensation, but due to huge pressure, it still signed the " Treaty of Shimonoseki " , which was humiliating.
At that time, the second article in the treaty was: China ceded Liaodong Peninsula , Taiwan Island and all affiliated islands, Penghu Islands to Japan.
At this point, our treasure island Taiwan has once again become a colony of Japan, and for decades.
1931, the Japanese invaders had been planning for a long time and launched the September 18th Incident , and the Sino-Japanese War broke out.
At that time, the leader of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong and the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek were fighting in the south. Chiang Kai-shek was "encircling and suppressing" Red Army at all costs, but Chairman Mao had always put forward the slogan of anti-Japanese war for national justice.
It was not until 1936 that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party began to unite in fighting against Japan. After July 7 Incident, , after eight years of hard fighting, the Japanese were finally defeated.Time has come to 1945.
After Japan surrendered to , the Chinese government stated that it would abolish a series of unequal treaties signed with Japan and regain Taiwan.
The final result was that Japan unconditionally accepted the " Potsdam Announcement " and the " Cairo Declaration " and returned Taiwan to China. At this point, Taiwan has re-entered China's territory and returned to China's sovereign jurisdiction.
After Japan surrender, Chiang Kai-shek launched a civil war in . Chairman Mao led the Chinese People's Liberation Army and completely defeated Chiang Kai-shek after three major battles.
Judging from the data of 's three major battles, the Chinese People's Liberation Army annihilated more than 1.54 million Kuomintang troops, and Chiang Kai-shek's military strength was basically destroyed.
1949 Before the Chinese People's Liberation Army crossed the river in full, Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly escaped until he was powerless to turn things around.
On the afternoon of April 21, Chiang Kai-shek boarded the plane leaving Nanjing. On the gangway, Chiang Kai-shek's face was gloomy and his voice was hoarse. He said, "Let's go..."
In December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek declared "retirement" and defeated Taiwan.
National heroes cannot forget
Today's Taiwan, Anping Castle , which has a history of more than 300 years, was once the doomsday nest for Dutch colonists to resist. After a bloody battle, Zheng Chenggong led the military and civilians to conquer it in one fell swoop, forcing the invaders to surrender.
Zhang Xueliang also wrote poems in his later years to praise Zheng Chenggong. He wrote: Evil sonA lonely minister is a childish scholar, full of righteousness to resist the strong Hu. The great achievements lie in respecting Mingshuo and ensuring that Taiwan enters the territory.
Now looking at history, Zheng Chenggong's regaining Taiwan is not only a patriotic story of regaining his hometown, but also proves to the world that Taiwan Island has been China's territory since ancient times and is sacred and inviolable.
